EOF - Why I Don't Worry about SCO, and Never Did

By the time this article goes to print and arrives in
your mailbox, the SCO case will mean even less than
it does when I'm writing this, and that's saying
something. The latest headline associated with SCO
is their potential delisting from the Nasdaq for
failing to file paperwork. This is the public-company
equivalent of being sent to bed without supper or
being expelled from school. It isn't good,
and it's very irresponsible.

By the time this magazine hits print they'll have
sent in their homework, late, for a lesser grade,
or they'll have retreated from the public markets and
the expensive and revealing Sarbanes-Oxley scrutiny
that comes with having a ticker symbol. Either way,
they'll be even less of a threat to free software, but
I have to say, I wasn't worried, not for one minute.

I wasn't worried about their legal position that they
owned parts of the Linux kernel.

I wasn't worried about their complaints against friend
of Linux, IBM.

I wasn't worried about the future of the Linux kernel,
Linus himself, his wife, his kids, Alan Cox, Andrew
Morton or, for that matter, the people in industry that
SCO subpoenaed in pursuit of their action against IBM.

Why wasn't I worried?
The time to sue Linux and many prominent open-source
software projects has passed, and in that passing,
we have a blueprint on how to avoid consequential
litigation for future important free software
projects. The reason I don't worry about people suing
Linux, and the reason I wasn't worried when SCO
did it, is because Linux has become too important to
too many people for it to be vulnerable to that kind
of attack.

The time to kill Linux was when it was a project with
ten developers who lived on university stipends, not
when it has thousands of connected developers and $14
billion in Linux-related sales (IDC's number for the
year 2003, if you believe analysts). It was vulnerable
when it was still a university project, not now when
uncountable school districts are using it to reduce
their dependence on the punitive cost structures
of proprietary software. It was vulnerable when it
was in use in a few countries by a few dozen users,
not now when it is used by a few dozen countries to
ensure their software sovereignty. In short, it was
vulnerable when it meant nothing to a few, not now when
it is central to the information age economies.

And if that hyperbole didn't make you turn the page and drool over an
ad for some sexy cluster gear, here is what we learn from Linux and
Litigation.

First, if you want to destroy a free software project's
chances of success, start when it is young, by making
a competing product so good there will be no
user need for the free software.

Second, if you are running a large project, assemble your friends
around you, the way Linux has, so you can absorb the hits that come
with success. Surrounding Linux is a vast array of industry
organizations, corporate users, nations and end users whose livelihood
is tied tightly to Linux. This doesn't mean that Linux doesn't get
sued, it simply means the people doing the suing find themselves
horribly alone.

Third, put off any sort of foundation or corporatization until you are
ready to defeat the slings and arrows that come with the success of
your project. The Samba team has played this card very well. If some
large software company were to go after Samba under the rubric of
patent infringement, who could it go after that would slow the use of
Samba? Samba project leaders Andrew Tridgell and Jeremy Allison would
be protected by the same companies who find Samba vital to their
survival. And this wouldn't stop people from using Samba one bit.
Sometimes in the pages of LJ we talk about Microsoft
as if it were
filled with fools. But it's not so foolish as to sue its end users the
way SCO has. The day for effectively suing Samba also has passed.

And finally, when people sue Linux or Samba, help if you can,
but the best start is to keep using free software and help keep it
vital to yourself, your workplace and your government. Through
this need, this necessity, we enshroud our software with a warm
blanket of security that the parasites will fail to penetrate.

So, in the end, this article is really about Asterisk,
the free Voice-over-IP software that developed at
telco hardware maker Digium. Asterisk represents a
project that is on the verge of being too important
to be vulnerable. If I were looking for an open-source company to back, I'd say (and have said)
Digium. If you haven't tried it, you really should.
It is remarkable stuff. Like Linux, you can't believe
software can be this good and useful.
And if it's good and useful, it will be important to
enough people that legal threats from failed companies
just won't matter.

Chris DiBona is the Open Source Program Manager for Mountain View,
California-based Google, Inc. Before joining Google, Mr DiBona was an
editor/author for the popular on-line Web site slashdot.org. He writes
for a great number of publications, speaks internationally on
software development and digital rights issues and co-edited the award
winning essay compilation Open Sources, whose sequel is planned for
a July 2005 release.

I'm not proud of it, and I think it would have been better
not to have worried, but I was worried, because I know that
the U.S. has ten times as many lawyers per capita than
Europe has; I know that the U.S. is a litigious society; and
I was naive about how predominant Linux had become in the
marketplace.

I'm not proud of it, and I think it would have been better
not to have worried, but I was worried, because I know that
the U.S. has ten times as many lawyers per capita than
Europe has; I know that the U.S. is a litigious society; and
I was naive about how predominant Linux had become in the
marketplace.

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